Women and Politics in Uganda

AILI MARI TRIPP is Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Genderand Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Women and Politics in Uganda is a rich and detailed study of the impact of gender on the political environment of Uganda. The product of considerable and extensive empirical research and fieldwork, its methodology is based on wide-ranging interviews and survey material that highlight the lives and life-chances of very different women...[It] is a fascinating study and should be commended as a significant contribution to the study of gender relations and the politics of power. This work is essential reading, not only for those interested in the nuances of state and society within an African nation, but also for those concerned with the lives of the poor and disadvantaged.

• Women's mobilization and social autonomy in comparative African perspective; a foot in the door - historical perspectives on the women's movement in Uganda; background to the National Resistance Movement; the rise of the women's movement under the NRM; preserving organizational autonomy; the practical and the political - the battle for market stalls and power in Kiyembe; reconfiguring the political - the case of Wakitaka health clinic; resisting patronage politics - the case of Kawaala housing project; anatomy of a deception - "something is fishy in Kamuli"; decentralization and women's participation in Uganda; appendix A -survey methods; appendix B - developing Kawaala through self help participation - "the proposed Kawaala land development project" drawn up by Kawaala residents; appendix C - constitution of Ekikwenza Omubi project, 1990.